Fantasy

It's no secret that I love fantasy. I love most genres, but I have a special soft spot for fantasy. There's just something so magical (heh) about the idea of magic flowing through your veins like blood, melting out of your pores, able to manifest into innumerable different forms at the flick of the wrist or a curse from your lips. You put on top of that the magnificence of a knight in shining armor riding atop his noble steed, crossing the wilds of the land in order to fight creatures with powers untold to save the lives of an entire kingdom. 

It's not just the medieval fantasy that I love, though. I mean, it would be hard to argue that it's not my main interest, but there's more to fantasy then knights and dragons. A story that I've had in my head for years, and one that I've written pieces of many times in many places is a modern fantasy. Musicians who can control the elements with their songs in modern day, trying to learn both how to control their powers and exist in a world which has long since discarded the idea of such powers as anything more than fiction.

In many ways, there are future stories which are highly influenced by fantasy as well. Certainly when speaking of the future, science fiction is the genre of choice, but there are some things which science simply cannot manage. The ability to fly without aid. To control the ebb and flow of the tides on a whim. To place your hand on another's head, reach into their mind and take their thoughts and memories, rearrange them and shape them to fit your every purpose. These can all be done to some extent of course, but not with the ease or simplicity of fantasy. 

But fantasy can also be complex. To complicate the source of magic, or how it flows, or what it can do. To make it detrimental to use, or to make it draw on the very life force of its user. To say that if you are to conjure one thing, then it must disappear from elsewhere in the world in some shape or form. Magic quickly becomes dangerous, and those who use it a threat. 

Fantasy can be as simple or complex as you want it. And that's part of why I love it so much. It's not limited to a strict formula the way romances or comedies are. It can use those formulas, making a fantasy adventure story or a fantasy drama, or it can be something on its own entirely. It is so incredibly flexible, and yet it can put in place rules so strict that, should they be broken, the only certainty left is death. 

Yet for some reason, so many people I come across seem to view fantasy as childish. They think that such a world that permits for the existence of magic can only be comprehended and enjoyed by minds which have not yet reached their full capacity. 

Fantasy can be childish. I don't deny this. And it's probably easier for fantasy to be childish then many other genres. But even ignoring that this isn't always true, what's so wrong with that? Sometimes, being childlike can be a relief from the stresses of everyday life. I don't see the problem, as long as the story is enjoyable.

Fantasy can be and do so many things, and I love it. It adds such an interesting element to the world when anything can be possible. You don't know what's going to come next, and there's no obvious solution to the problem when that's the case. So much can happen. What's not to love?